Slow me down
by kimmiesjoy
Summary: Paired Challenge with AlwaysCastle Pick a song for each other. It can't be a song fic. Just listen to the song, and write what comes to you. Do not put the lyrics in the fic unless it's a thought or being spoken. Not as an actual lyric.


Paired Challenge with **AlwaysCastle**:  
Pick a song for each other. It can't be a song fic. Just listen to the song, and write what comes to you. Do not put the lyrics in the fic unless it's a thought or being spoken. Not as an actual lyric.

**Disclaimer**: I own nothing but I am very lucky to be have stumbled upon a place such as this that let me find some amazing people. I cant even begin to name them all but I will say this I am most grateful to Diane for helping me find my voice, and Lizzie for helping me make it stronger.

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**Kimmies song: Slow me Down - Emmy Rossum **

She takes a step, gentle and tentative her toes curling as she gets closer and closer to the edge and suddenly she's standing still with the press of wind at her back. Her hair is a forward flying curtain that whips past her face. The snaking, curled tendrils reach for escape, pulling her with them.

Everything in her drags forwards, the wind at her back propelling her.

Her weight and the steady press of the air tips her, unbalanced, onto her toes, but she catches herself and lingers. High above, distanced and safe and for once she is paying attention to the call. For once the sounds of everything around her don't drag her under, drown her, overwhelm her.

The winds roars again, lifting her hair.

The hum dissipates and silence prevails.

Everything below flies by, it moves with speed, like she used to, and she missed things that way. She lived her life on the balls of her feet.

She chased the world and it only spun faster.

All she ever wanted was the time and the space to stand, to breathe it in, absorb it through her skin. Her life should be a cacophony of sound and a rainbow wash of colour, but it's been grey, fast moving...dimmed.

She lifts her face to the radiating heat of the sun. She wants the light and the warmth. The heat that leaves you sleepy and breathless, the everything of life. She wants it all.

Another burst, gusting breeze in forceful motion takes her by surprise and she gasps. Her hand rising to lift the hair from her eyes. She inhales her surprise a delightful bubble of newness and she closes her eyes her feet carrying her to the edge.

What is left for her to do but...soar.

Chaotic and free.

An elliptical spiral, that is what it would be. End over end into the blue oblivion.

She exhales a breath that chases her hair into the ether. Her eyes close, better to feel it all before it's gone and she's falling.

She smiles, lips parting in this new found peace, this sense of knowing and wonder. One hand still holding the hair back from her face.

Somewhere nearby is the call of a name. Her name. But its past the point of no return, her hands above her head, the call too strong and she tips forwards.

The fall is long, air and breath and all in between. It melts and mixes in some unknown perfume, the breath of life. It fills her up as she falls.

Hair no longer hindering her vision but she can't force her eyes open. Everything she hears and feels so much more intense with her eyes closed. This is what she has been seeking.

Clarity.

Her skin tingles in the rush, the movement past her fast, but she falls slowly, a feather thrown from the ledge that drifts to earth.

But every feather must eventually find its resting place, soft and still.

Her fall nears its end and she meets the water, her fingers delving beneath the surface, taking her into that oblivion she sought so readily.

The water catches her body, hard and soft and it slows her down. She disappears under the clouds of trickling blue, the reflections of everything stolen by the gold glint that meets her now open eyes.

Oh.

She's under now, and moving in rippling rolls with the water that she parted. It rebels against her invasion. But here, under everything is light and beauty.

Peace.

Her open eyes should sting, should ache with the depth of everything they are now forced to see, to believe.

But they don't.

She lingers under the water, staring at the flecks of sunlight that bounce against each wave. It holds her steady, watching each colour that bursts to life across its surface.

She opens her mouth, blows the air free from her lungs. The bubbles chase each other to the surface, mesmerizing her in their enticing dance towards freedom.

Fairies of the water, she wants to laugh, under the weight of the waves. She's giddy with the rising of each new feeling, new light across the water again.

Free.

The sky, already blue, becomes bluer still as she stares up, up, up. The clouds white and they call her, everything calls her. She presses her feet to the solid truth of life beneath her and rushes, like those freedom seeking bubbles.

Headlong she rushes to the surface.

She breaks the water, not re-born, discovered.

She emerges her eyes blinking into the sun. Staring ahead, her fingers skirting the water, they trail amidst all that it offers and the smile won't leave her face.

She breathes, fully and deeply, she takes in the world, in life, love.

She fell.

But she's still falling.

That voice, the one that lingered as she skimmed the air, returns. She lifts her head from the pull of the water and she falls into another blue. The deepest, truest blue.

And there as she gazes, a hand appears, the one that slowed her down.

The hand that gave her the world back now reaches for her, seeking nothing more than to meet her, find her in the moment. She can give herself now, she won't falter or miss things. She's not tired anymore and the world, the sky, everything is in glorious bright brilliant colour.

She reaches for it, meeting the smile that finds her with that tender touch. Fingers connecting, strong and tight as they pull and she rises, water rushing, racing past her body.

She fell.

And his arms circle her waist as she leaves the water. She fell and its okay because she didn't need to be caught. She just needed someone to take her hand.


End file.
